Latches for vehicle hoods and the like are typically actuated in two stages. During a first stage a handle is actuated inside the vehicle which moves the latch from a primary closed position to secondary closed position. To release the latch completely the vehicle occupant typically must exit the vehicle and actuate a lever that is under the hood. This may be inconvenient in some situations.
The current state of the art for hood latch involves two operations to open gain access to the hood, one operation from inside the vehicle followed by an additional hood actuation at the front of the vehicle to complete the release of the latch. Desired is a mechanism to provide for a multiple stage release from inside of the vehicle. Also desired is visual signal that the hood has been released by the multiple stages. Further, having a compatible active pedestrian protection latch with the multiple stage release could also be desirable.
In terms of lifting a hood in general and specifically for an active pedestrian protection system, the latch is needed to provide a travel that is greater than that which is used for normal opening. Due to mechanical limitations of springs and targets for mass and packaging, the normal opening lift of the hood cannot be as high as compared to what is provided using the active pedestrian protection system.
The automotive industry is attempting to better protect pedestrians from head on collisions with vehicles. When a car hits a pedestrian in a front collision, the pedestrian can be thrown up and land on the front hood of the vehicle and/or the windshield. In an effort to ameliorate the harshness of the impact, and in particular to prevent the person's head from hitting the engine block or other hard point located directly underneath the front hood, it is desired to actively space the front hood from the engine block whenever a front end collision is detected.